Last week Sony PSP owners were delighted to read our
heads-up report that
Lost would come to UMD format this September. Now we have gotten additional information on the release directly from Buena Vista, plus cover and disc art as well:
Lost - The Series Pilot Episodes: Part I & Part II arrives in stores the same day as the DVD release of
The Complete 1st Season:
Sept. 6th. $19.99 is the list price for this UMD version, but if you're thinking "oh, all we'll get is the two-part episode," then you're very mistaken! Unlike most UMDs,
Lost is all set to have several extras for your portable entertainment enjoyment!
Home Media Retailing posted a story yesterday that revealed the following bonus features, which are duplicates of supplements that can also be found on the DVD version:
- A making-of featurette
- Original casting tapes
- Documentary on the art of star Matthew Fox
- possibly more
As we've wandered the Internet, reading consumer comments about DVDs vs. UMDs, we often see questions about how a UMD version of a title will almost always cost more than the same item on DVD, yet contain "less" in that there are almost never any supplements on the PSP version. People seem very confused by this, so now seems to be a good opportunity as any for us to comment on that, and explain what our understanding is of the cause. An industry contact, speaking in an off-the-record conversation, explained to me that the UMD authoring process is fairly complicated right now compared to DVDs, especially where menus are concerned. Adding bonus content means dealing swith additional menus, and so studios are hanging back right now and prefer not to include the extras which complicate the project by having to find room on the disc, take the time and expense to author the menus, and make it take longer to bring the release to market. Also driving up the cost is the fact that there are much fewer UMD authors at this time, while the format is stil ramping up and the programmers get the hang of the different system. Plus, it was indicated (if this was understood correctly) that all UMD content must currently go through Sony's UMD manufacturing system at this time. Still, these are just growing pains for a new video format, whereas DVD has been around since 1997. Give it time, and UMD costs will come down and the content will expand...just like DVD did!
